Dark Dreams

Written by children and young adults and selected from a nationwide school competition, this anthology of essays, interviews, comments and short stories imaginatively recreates the experiences of young individuals who came to Australia as refugees. From escaping the Holocaust and surviving terrible boat journeys from Vietnam to persevering war-torn Croatia and Bosnia and fleeing oppression in Afghanistan and Iraq, these stories provide a representative sample of the various backgrounds and amazing experiences of asylum seekers in Australia over the last 50 years. Written with both the humor and innocence of children and the frank compassion of young adults, the recurrent theme of friendships that have been lost, broken, remembered, and found emerge as these young asylum seekers relive their escapes and relate their experiences fleeing to a new world.